AP Lang Vocab (Satire)

Horatian

satire is tolerant, witty, wise, self-effacing

Juvenalian

satire is angry, caustic, resentful, personal

Situational Irony

a state of affairs/event seems deliberately contrary to what you expect, but somehow fitting

Verbal Irony

saying the opposite of what is meant (sarcasm)

Dramatic Irony

when the audience knows something that a character does not know

Parody

an imitation of another, more serious, piece of work (the audience must be familiar with the original work)

Exaggeration/Hyperbole

dramatic overstatement, representing something as much better/worse than it really is (Blatant falsehoods)

Caricature

visual description/imitation of something where certain striking characteristics (physical or not) are exaggerated to create a comic effect (think Donald Trump’s pursed lips)

Understatement/Meiosis

representing something as smaller, less intense, less important than it really is

Diminution

taking a real life situation and reducing it to make it seem ridiculous, showcasing its faults (calling a large person tiny)

Reversal

when the normal order of things are reversed (children taking care of parents)

Knaves and Fools

Knaves (bad guys) exploit ignorance of fools (suckers). When they meet, they expose one another.

Malapropism

deliberate mispronunciation of name/term to poke fun

Anachronism

deliberately placing something in wrong time period to add humor, highlighting contrast between one era and another

Incongruity

when something is completely out of place compared to what surrounds it (anachronism is a type)

Comic Juxtaposition

linking together items which normally do not go together and audience automatically compares/contrasts them

Mock Epic/Mock Hero

using devices like elevated diction or characteristics of epic hero to deal with low/trivial subjects

Deflation

when a person who is perceived high-standing makes obvious error (English teacher mispronouncing word)

Invective

harsh, abusive language directed against person/cause (more common in Juvenalian satire)

Mock Encomium

speech or piece of writing sounds like praises, but actually ridicules/suggests blame